Legacy of the Ancients
Chapter Ten: Rabbit Run
By: Sci-Fi-Raptor
Disclaimer: I own Zoids and everything related to it. Actually I own the world! Not really… sob
"Oh noo…no no no noo. This cant be happening" thought Jamie; he went to mach6. "Hold one Pierce! I'm coming to get you!"
By now, the Storm Sworder's thrusters had failed, and the special thrusters had blown up. She was still flying from the momentum she had, but she was slowing down fast, and there was no way to keep her up.
Jamie finally reached Pierce, and matched speeds with her.
This is the end… I'm gonna die. "Jamie! I know I've been a pain to you, and I know we didn't get to spend all the time together that e should have, but… I love you! And I always want you to remember that…" BOOM! An explosion of her Zoid cut her off.
"Pierce!" Jamie screamed. She thinks she's dead. And she'll die if she keeps thinking that… His Raynos had matched speed with the Storm Sworder, and had used its feet to latch onto it. At least he didn't have to worry about the Sworder losing any more speed. Jamie opened his cockpit and somehow opened Pierce's and went inside. He found her unconscious, and her head was bleeding. "Oh no…"
Jamie took her in his arms and BOOM! The cockpit exploded…
Brad had been watching the whole time, and fell to his knees when he saw it explode. He could swear his saw Jamie with that cocky, I'm the ruler of this universe, grin on his face. After he stopped crying, and regained his composure, he went back to tell everyone the bad news…
"So Brad" Leena said in a highly abnormally cheerful voice, "Why'd you call all of us here?" Brad had told everyone to meet him in the bridge of the Hover Cargo.
Before he could even say a word, he started crying again. He hugged Leena and said, "I'm so sorry. I wanted to help, but he was so far away…"
Blushing that Brad was this close to her, she said, "Brad, what are you talking about? You don't cry, and you're really scaring me right now."
"It's Jamie and Pierce"
"What about them Brad" Leena said in a shaky voice. She had an inkling to what it was, but she couldn't believe it.
He told them what happened. "And before I knew it, the cockpit blew up"
Leena was glad that Brad was holding on to her… she became very weak suddenly, and started bawling. Everyone else just stood in silence, finding it hard to believe that they had lost Jamie.
"He didn't die. It's Jamie! Come on… I'm going out there to bring him back" said Bit.
"Bit, let it go. We lost him" said the Doc, finding it hard to believe that he had lost another of his loved ones.
"No! He didn't die!" said Bit, tears rolling down his face. Then he sprinted to the maintenance bay and left with the Liger.
Haru was about to follow, but Hiro told her to stay back… this was something that they had to do alone.
Bit and the Liger, who was in the Jager mode, sped off to the crash site in silence. When they finally reached there, they looked in awe. The two Zoids were totaled, but they could be fixed up. But it would take a really strong person to make it out alive from crash like that. The two Zoids were mangled into each other, and there was extensive damage to the areas near the Storm Swoder's cockpit. Bit just stood there, watching the burning Zoids, until he finally admitted to himself that there was no chance that he was alive. He turned away from the smoldering mess.
He slowly walked back to the Liger.
~You really loved him, didn't you?~
"Ya… he was like the kid brother that I never had. I just can't believe that he would die from something like that…" said Bit, reminiscing all those times Jamie had almost crashed into the ground, but then somehow managed to get his Zoid flying again.
~No one is invincible, not even Jamie. But I don't think you should be leaving him for dead just yet. Look over there~ the Liger pointed its head a little bit away from the crash site. The golden afternoon sun was glaring into his face, but he could see it after he squinted.
"That son-of-a-bitch! He made it!" said Bit in extreme happiness. What he saw was a discarded parachute, most likely Jamie getaway instrument. Bit boarded the Liger and brought them closer to it. To his disappointment, no one was there, but there was the next best thing.
"Tracks!" said Bit. "And they lead to… there!" he pointed towards the Blitz team base. "He's probably on his way already! But why didn't we see him while we were coming here?"
~Surely time will tell~
"Ya"
They followed the trail for a few seconds and saw that it ended abruptly. Bit and the Liger scanned the ground. They saw footprints of other people, and the trail of a hover platform. "Uh oh… I think they got caught" said Bit in a worried tone. He looked in the direction of the trail of the platform, and deduced that it headed towards the Aroché mountain chain. "Dammit! I think that some bandits caught them"
~Indeed. Maybe we should go back and tell everyone what we found?~
"No, we don't have time for that. If we go back, this trail will probably be gone, and the bandits will be to far away to catch anyway!"
~I agree. Lets make haste!~ The Liger initiated his boosters, and accelerated to about 100 meter per second (about 220 miles per hour).
"Oh noo…no no no noo. This cant be happening" thought Jamie; he went to mach6. "Hold one Pierce! I'm coming to get you!"
By now, the Storm Sworder's thrusters had failed, and the special thrusters had blown up. She was still flying from the momentum she had, but she was slowing down fast, and there was no way to keep her up.
Jamie finally reached Pierce, and matched speeds with her.
This is the end… I'm gonna die. "Jamie! I know I've been a pain to you, and I know we didn't get to spend all the time together that e should have, but… I love you! And I always want you to remember that…" BOOM! An explosion of her Zoid cut her off.
"Pierce!" Jamie screamed. She thinks she's dead. And she'll die if she keeps thinking that… His Raynos had matched speed with the Storm Sworder, and had used its feet to latch onto it. At least he didn't have to worry about the Sworder losing any more speed. Jamie opened his cockpit and somehow opened Pierce's and went inside. He found her unconscious, and her head was bleeding. "Oh no…"
Jamie took her in his arms and BOOM! The cockpit exploded…
But fortunately for Jamie, the cockpit door caught his parachute's release string. Since they were going so fast, and the door was open, the door tore off because of the air resistance, and took Jamie with it. Jamie held onto Pierce long enough to get her out of the cockpit, but she slipped out of his hands, and was falling in a direction away from him. He desperately twisted his body to aim himself towards Pierce, to try and intercept her. After a little use of skill, and a whole lot of luck, he finally reached her. He took his parachute off and put it on Pierce. Then he put himself in such a way, so that when he released the chute, he wouldn't fall off. Then he let it go. He looked in the direction of the abandoned Zoids, and saw that they were losing altitude. The wind was making his eyes teary, so he left them closed his eyes for a bit. Soon he heard the explosion of the Zoids crashing into the ground. He looked down into the direction of the crash, and saw the smoldering mess. At least we can repair them he thought to himself.
After a few minutes, he finally touched down. He quickly looked over Pierce, and was sure that she would survive if she could get medical attention. He knew that she was massively injured, but they had to get back to base ASAP, so he would have to carry her the whole way. Someone's bound to find me, right? thought Jamie to himself again.
Jamie had been walking for some time now, and his body was getting tired. Normally, he could walk until forever, but not only was he injured, he was carrying Pierce and he was no macho man… He sat down and decided to rest for then. He carefully put Pierce on the sand, sure that it was soft enough for her to lie down on. He looked down into her face and brushed her hair away. She looked as beautiful as ever. That Pierce, she looked so innocent when she was sleeping like that. He gave her a short kiss and lay down on the ground next to her.
A few minutes later, he heard the soft hum of a cargo transport. Hoping he could hitchhike, he got up and looked for it. It was heading straight for them, but he wanted to make sure they noticed them; he was jumping up and down like someone kicked him in the but bone.
The transport finally reached them, and stopped. Some came out, but Jamie automatically knew that he didn't want to hitchhike with them: they had Back Draft insignias on their uniforms. Oh man… I thought it couldn't get any worse.
"Well," said one of the agents "what have we here?"
"We were in a crash, and we were hoping that we could get a ride to the nearest hospital" said Jamie calmly. Maybe, just maybe, we can get away with this he thought to himself.
"Who's we?" he said.
"Me and my g- friend" he replied. I don't want go give him any ideas he thought. He pointed to where Pierce was sleeping.
"Oh… that looks bad" he said. "Alright, we'll take you. But we can only take you as far as the outskirts of the city. We have a delivery here that cant wait."
"Thank you so much" Jamie said. A few men came out and with Jamie's assistance, they all carefully put Pierce into the sick bay. They all boarded the vehicle, and were one their way.
"So," asked Jamie "what are you guys transporting?" he asked. He was sure that these Back Draft members weren't the crazy evil ones he was used to.
"Well, we don't really know. All I know is that some spy of ours thinks he found something that was stolen from us, but sent a sample back to base to be sure. He has it from something called a Liger."
"Was it a white Liger?" Jamie asked.
"Yah, how'd you know?" he replied
"Well, I remember seeing it on TV one day" said Jamie, lucky that he caught himself. "Is its pilot that guy that Leyon wants so bad?"
"Yah, but its not Layon that's after him. Its some top-secret organization, that very few people know about, that's interested in him. Once they are sure, they'll get him, no doubt. And I think that they're 100% sure anyway, so they'll probably go after him right after we deliver this."
"Didn't Leyon try to do it, but never succeed?" asked Jamie, trying to learn as much as he could. This new threat seemed very dangerous.
"Yah, but Leyon is an idiot. I mean, sure he's real smart and all, but he's an idiot when it comes to messing with people. He's one of the very few people that got to where he is by pure skill." By this time they had reached the outskirts of the city, and the Back Draft members had to drop them off.
"Thanks a lot guys!" said Jamie in extreme gratification.
"No problem. Just don't tell anyone what I told you. I forgot that this was a top secret mission." Said the guy that had been talking to Jamie.
I guess they really are all idiots though Jamie. "Goodbye" he yelled, and waved his arms until they couldn't be seen anymore.
Jamie quickly went to the hospital and checked Pierce in. Once he was sure that she was safe, and getting the proper treatment, he called the base.
"JAMIE! You're alive!" said Leena when she answered the vid-phone. Her eyes were getting teary, and she looked like she was about to cry.
"Yes I am… but I have something important to tell Bit" he said quickly.
"Bit isn't here right now, he went out to look for you…" she replied.
"What! Oh no. His life may be in danger. Some new part of the Back Draft organization is after him. Try to warn him, 'cause they sound dangerous." He said.
"We can't. He left communication range a few minutes ago…" she said, a gloomy face, fear overcoming her.
"Oh man! I just saw the Jager go right past us. And he's going straight in the direction of the Back Draft that got us here" he said in desperation.
"What Back Draft?" asked Leena.
Jamie explained everything that happened to them, starting from what happened out in the sky, to until where he was right then. Everyone aboard was there when he explained it, and they decided that Bit was most likely to be headed into a trap. "I guess we should go after him. But our Zoids can't cover that much distance without recharging" said Jamie.
"Well, someone has to stay with Pierce, just in case something happens to her, so you'll have to stay back" said the Doc.
"But Jamie would be the best person to track and find Bit" said Haru. "I think he should go, and I can take his place" she suggested. I'm supposed to stay out of this anyway. And if they do run into something, Hiro and Bit could probably handle it.
"I don't know…" said Jamie.
"Don't worry" said Brad. "I'm sure Pierce will come back as healthy as ever when we get back."
"Alright"
"Ok, but we still have one problem" said the Doc. "The Hover Cargo cant get there way too fast by land…unless"
"Unless what?" everyone said or thought.
"Unless we detach the CAS and Catapult. (that big disk thingy that would be the equivalent of the shell of a snail) We can just store all the Zoids in the cargo hold, and detach it. That way, we can go to speeds near a Rev Raptor."
"Really?" asked Jamie "Why didn't you tell me about it before?" he said in disappointment."
"um… I forgot" said Doc. Jamie's sweat dropped followed by everyone else.
"Alright. So these are our options then. We go without the CAS and Catapult, and not have the ability for Bit to change armor, or we can keep it, and be very far behind" said Brad.
"Well, he is going fast, and the longer we wait, and he farther he gets, the harder it will be to find him" said Jamie.
"Alright, I guess we'll have to detach it" said the Doc. Everyone went to the maintenance deck and moved their Zoids to the cargo hold. Then, and hidden crane came out of the case and proceeded to take the shell off. "Now, where do I put it again?" thought the Doc. "Oh yeah! I put it where Bit puts all his junk". He put it in there, crushing all the weapons and components Bit had salvaged and revamped.
"Lets go!" the Doc said excitedly. He slowly accelerated the lighter Hover Cargo, and eventually reached the speed of a Rev Raptor at full speed. Soon, they arrived at the town Jamie and Pierce was in, and switched Jamie for Haru. Then Jamie went to the Command Center and tried to figure out where Bit was. He told the Doc what general direction he was heading, and would periodically change their heading to the direction Jamie triangulated that Bit was most likely to be heading to.
"Wow" exclaimed Jamie. "I never thought the Hover Cargo could go this fast."
"Well it was a modification I made a while ago" said the Doc, and then in a softer voice "I just kinda forgot about it till now…"
Agamemnon pulled up the cargo vehicle up to the lab's dock. He initiated the automatic unloading sequence and left the vehicle. He headed towards his temporary quarters until his vehicle was prepped, and ready to ship its new load of cargo. He entered his quarters and found it surprisingly tidy; almost all of his other quarters were pig stiles, and badly needed maintenance.
This was like a first class room compared to what he usually got. It had a lot of floor space, a queen sized bed, electric stove, heater and A/C, and an adequate bathroom, one that didn't have feces all over the floor. This must be some really important place if they spend so much time on it thought Agamemnon. For a few seconds he felt like king; how wrong he was.
A few seconds later an announcement went out for him: "Agamemnon de Argos is wanted at the service desk. Can Agamemnon de Argos promptly go to the service desk."
Great Agamemnon thought. He quickly went to the bathroom to wash his face with water, since he felt a little sleepy from long haul. He looked at himself in the mirror, and saw his olive skin completion. He was in his mid 20's, and hoping that his years of loyalty and service would one day land him a job that he could be proud of; at least not have to use so much energy on. Then the thought occurred to him: Maybe I'm getting a promotion. Maybe rooms like this are for people with good jobs, and I'm gonna get a promotion! I knew all that hard work would pay off. He quickly tidied his hair, and headed to the service desk.
"Hello" Agamemnon said to the person manning the desk. "I was called to come here?"
"Yes" the person replied. The servicemen gave him a securi-card, and an official looking envelope. "Your orders are in there."
"Thanks" said Agamemnon with uncontained glee. He slowly walked away and then started skipping away, and randomly hugged a woman. She blushed, then slapped him in the face, and threw him to the ground. "Hmp!" she said as she walked away.
Man… feeling good isn't all its cracked up to be thought Agamemnon. The serviceman was watching this and shook his head. "And he was a good one too" he thought
Bit and Hiro had been running for quite some time now, but the Liger wasn't supposed to last this long without a break, so Hiro told Bit that he needed to recharge himself.
~Bit, I need to stop now. My boosters are wearing out~
"Sure buddy" said Bit.
Bit could see a store coming up, so he cut off the thrusters, and let the Liger run the rest of the way. When he reached there, he parked the Liger nearby, and let it rest and cool down. Then he went inside.
The store was in a pretty senseless place. They were in the desert, in the middle of no-where, and it looked like no one had been there for some time. Bit cautiously waked up to the register, half expecting the rotten wood floor to break.
"What can I do you for" said a voice
"Who said that?" said Bit
"I did" said a little white rabbit. Bit looked down, and lo and behold, there stood a little rabbit, busy munching a fresh carrot.
"What the…" said Bit, taken unawares be the strange sight.
"Well, are you going to stand there all day?" asked the rabbit, this time in an impatient tone.
"Um… do you have any water?" asked Bit, feeling foolish asking a rabbit for water.
"Lets see…NO! This is a gooper-blogdinger store" said the rabbit
"gooper-what dinger?" questioned Bit.
"Glooper-BlogDinger. You know, it activates a person's Hyper mode?"
"… you lost me…" said Bit.
"You humans are hopeless!" said the rabbit. "Here, follow me" said the rabbit. It ran out of the store, as if a dog was chasing after it. Bit ran as fast as he could too, since he was losing track of the rabbit, still feeling foolish that he was talking to a rabbit. Suddenly the roof of the store caved in. "What the…" said Bit. Suddenly, a support column was about to fall on him. Normally he would dodge it, but the rabbit said something before he did: "Use the Force Bit… the Force of your Hyper Mode."
"What are you talking about?" said Bit. But it was too late for him to run away, so he tried to keep the column from falling on him. But he was too weak, and he was being crushed.
"IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, USE YOUR HYPER MODE!" yelled the rabbit.
"I don't know what you're talking about" said Bit, frustrated that the rabbit was telling him to do something that he had never heard of, and desperate, since he was being crushed.
"Feel inside of yourself. It's in you. All you have to do is tell it to save you, and it will."
"Fnck you!" said Bit, anger and fear taking control of him. But then he felt a third emotion… or lack of. He felt this emotion that was calming him down. He figured that might be what the crazy rabbit was talking about, so he gave it a shot. (I think it was Bit who was really crazy =P ~How would you feel if a talking rabbit just talked to ya?~ I wouldn't, 'cause I don't talk to rabbits! ~…~) He tried to amplify the emotion, and then he calmed down. The support column started to weigh less and less, until it felt as light as a feather; he threw it off. He felt changed. He looked at his right hand and was surprised to see the picture of a rabbit on the back of his hand. He also felt warm, and realized that he was engulfed in flames, but he didn't feel like he was burning.
"What the…" said Bit, awestruck by what had just happened to him. He looked in front of him, and saw the rabbit there, but this time it didn't have a carrot in its mouth, it had his wallet! "You low down piece of…" before Bit could finish, the rabbit dashed off, so he gave chase. He was surprised that he could keep up with the rabbit, but it was going faster and faster, and Bit tried his best to catch up to it. He then noticed something very peculiar; it seemed to him that he was going at a speed near a Lightning Saix! He abruptly stopped, and the rabbit did too, and found himself in front of the collapsed store again.
"There, you got your Glooper-BlogDinger. That'll be ten minutes from your future" said the strange rabbit. He no longer had his wallet in his mouth, and Bit realized it was back in his pocket.
"Um… what do you mean?" said a very confused Bit. By now, he didn't feel as if there was a threat, so the fire gradually subsided, and he was back to his goofy blonde haired self.
"You shall see… But for now, be proud. You have made your first rabbit run. If you ever need to go into Hyper mode again, just do this: Hubba Ba Loo!(it went on two legs and had its arms outstretched) And howdy do! (it went on one leg, and had his… paws where its free leg's knee was) Musty Brawns and Tumbucktoo! (It was on two legs again, and was twirling like a ballerina) Kick 'em in the wristband Roo Roo Roo! (it flipped in the air, and had its left paw over its right)"
"Kick 'em in the wristband Roo Roo Roo? Um…NO!" said Bit, amused by the funny dance it just did, but even more confused. The rabbit's sweat dropped.
"Just try to recreate what happened when that column was about to fall on you then…"
"Ok, but can you tell me what happened to me?"
"Just ask that stupid person in front of you" said the rabbit. Bit was about to ask him what he meant by that, but he had already disappeared. Then, all of a sudden, the whole store melted away to show an abandoned building that looked like it had been destroyed decades ago.
"Whoa… that was weird" Bit was about to head back to the Liger, until he saw a familiar face in front of him.
Hiro waited while Bit was exploring the abandoned building. He started acting strange when he go to the back of it, and all of a sudden, he looked like he was being crushed by something, but there was nothing there. Then, he went into Hyper mode! "That's not supposed to happen" thought Hiro. He took of a chunk of the Liger body, and transformed into the first human he could think of, which happened to be the body he had taken when he met Bit at the Springs Resort. That part of him rushed off to Bit, while the rest remained as still as a sleepy Zoid.
When he got to Bit, he had already come out of Hyper mode, and was talking to something that wasn't there. Then he turned and faced him.
"AHHH!" shrieked Bit, not expecting Hiro to come out of nowhere. "DON'T DO THAT!" he said, almost peeing in his pants.
"Sorry…" Hiro Mumbled.
"Hey, what are you doing here anyway?" asked Bit.
"Duh, we were out here searching for Ja-" he didn't catch himself in time.
"Oh. My. God… that wasn't just a dream. And I bet Haru is in on this with you too, isn't she?" said Bit
"Of course" he said defensively "she's my girl"
"That's weird… a Zoid going out with a person. Oh ya, you two aren't people, you're like shape shifters or something."
Obviously Bit had somehow found out the duo, and all he could really do was clarify what he probably didn't know. He was his BEST friend, after all. "Well', we're acutely a complex structure of nano sized robots that work as one entity, which can shape-" he realized he had lost Bit.
"You were saying?" said Bit, pretending he understood. Hiro's sweat dropped.
"Yah, we're shape shifters…"
"Don't worry buddy, your secret is safe with me."
"Really… would you mind if I took a different form then the Liger?" asked Hiro
"Sure, what do you have in mind?"
Hiro just grinned. Then his face melted, and then his whole body melted, and the blob of slime he became headed towards the Liger. The Liger had also been melting by this time, and was changing shape. It started to stretch and shrink at the same time. Finally, it was done transforming. It was a…
"Molga?" said Bit, his sweat dropping. "You wanted to be a Molga? You're sad"
"What? I've always wanted to see what it was like to be a Molga" said Hiro.
"You have issues…"
"Don't judge yet. You might like what you see" said Hiro. He opened the cockpit and let Bit in. Then he streaked across the desert, at speeds near a Lightning Saix's full power.
"You… mother…fu-" Bit was cut off as Hiro accelerated even more.
~WhooHoo!~
Agamemnon happily skipped his way to executive room 33-A; this lab's commander. "This must be really big if the commander wants me" thought Agamemnon. Agamemnon took the elevator to the 33rd floor. But instead of going up, he went down; this lab was exclusively underground, with one floor at ground level to make it seem harmless. It was also located near a canyon, which ran for a few more miles down, and stretched for a few hundred miles. When he finally reached the floor, the door wouldn't open. At first he was startled, but then remembered that this was a top-secret level, and only those with a class Z Securi-Card were allowed down here. He put his card into a slot that appeared, and then he was cleared. But the door didn't open still. At first he thought he did it wrong, but then noticed that something was happening; a gas was coming into the elevator. Instinctively, he tried everything he could to get out, but nothing happened. The gas finally reached him, but nothing happened. Then the floor opened, and he fell!
When he finally landed, he was amazed at what he saw. There was a huge chamber with a lot of scientists doing many different types of experiments and such. Then a husky looking black man came up to him. He was wearing a black leotard with a black steel falcon's foot where his left breast was. He looked like he could kill a person just by looking at him, that's how intimidating he was.
"Sorry about that. We would have warned you about that if we could, but we didn't want you to tell anyone about the elevator's secret ability" he said.
"And what is that ability?" asked Agamemnon.
"Full alien particle removal. It basically cleans you up, kills all germs and gets rid of any dust or anything like tat you might have on you. Its because this place is sensitive, and foreign agent like dust or germs can really interfere with what those egg-heads over there do.
"Whatever muscle-head" one of the scientists hollered, and a few of them chuckled. "I'll get you back Smith!" he replied. "That's just Smith, he always has to say something funny."
"…ok" said Agamemnon, thinking they were all nuts.
"Well, lets get going. The boss really wants to talk to you" he said. He escorted him into a long, dark corridor. "By the way," he said "my name is Jamal" and offered his hand.
"Agamemnon" Agamemnon said, and shook it. "Do you know what I'm in for?"
"Sorry," Jamal apologized "all I know is that you did something, and the boss wants to talk to you about it."
"Okay" Agamemnon thought. Then it hit him. He did do something that wasn't normal, he helped that guy and his girl he thought. And he also blabbed to them everything he wasn't supposed to. If they found out, he could be fired, or worse. He heard about some of the things that the Back Draft did to traitors, and he certainly never wanted to be in their shoes. All of a sudden, he got uncomfortable, and Jamal noticed.
"You all right?" he asked.
"Yeah, just a bit nervous"
"Don't worry 'bout it" he said and laughed. He laughed and gave a supportive arm around him. "The boss is cool, and he'll probably like you"
"I wish I could say the same" thought Agamemnon. They reached the end of the corridor.
Shadow finally found it… the final resting place of his former master. He turned into an energy bolt and sped to its merciless depths…
Who is this commander, and what does he want with Agamemnon?
What is Bit and Hiro headed for?
What is Shadow up to?
Why did a talking rabbit talk to Bit?
When will I stop asking questions?
Find out these and more, in the next chapter "Never More"
Sorry about the story getting a little out of hand, but I'm finally setting up the end of it (oh no! says the crowd. Yahoo! Says someone. Everyone gives him a death stare and he shrinks and say Oh no! in a teensy weensy voice). And yes, Hyper made has some Super Saiajin roots.
Umm… I have no idea why I used a rabbit. Don't ask. All I'll say is that it is a character we'll meet again in the future.